After 211 days in hospital, Lowcountry 3-year-old will throw 1st pitch for SC team
When snow covered the Lowcountry in January, photos of 3-year-old heart patient EJ Wright gleefully making snow angels outside a Charleston hospital went viral.
On Tuesday, the Estill boy is getting another chance to make once-in-a-lifetime memories when he throws the opening pitch for the Charleston Riverdogs minor league baseball game.
And EJ's mother, Jazmin Walker, posted on Facebook about even better news: After 211 days in the hospital waiting for a heart transplant, her son has improved enough that he was discharged from Medical University of South Carolina Children’s Hospital in Charleston on Monday.
EJ had been on an IV heart medication that allowed only a 30-minute break each day, Walker told The Island Packet in January.
It was during one of these short breaks that doctors allowed EJ to step outside the hospital to play in the rare Lowcountry snow.
EJ was born with a heart defect — hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Walker explained that means the left side of his heart didn’t develop correctly while she was pregnant. Her son had two open-heart surgeries before he was 6 months old; the first one was just five days after he was born.
He was scheduled to have another surgery around the time of his third birthday, but he began experiencing heart failure and was put on the United Network for Organ Sharing heart transplant list.
"Weeks and months went by, and a heart never came for EJ," Walker wrote on the EJ's Fight Facebook page set up to share updates for family members and friends.
"Then a few weeks ago, out of nowhere, EJ's doctors and care team started noticing a change in EJ's heart function," she wrote. "Labs, echos, X-rays, and heart caths — results showed that EJ's heart was improving!"
The boy still needs a heart transplant, she said, so the family has to stay close for regular heart tests and lab work.
Mom and son are now living a the Ronald McDonald House near the hospital, Walker said.
"For now EJ gets to live his life as a normal 3-year-old until a heart becomes available," she said. "While we're here at the Ronald McDonald House, EJ gets to do almost anything he wants within Charleston."
One of those things will be throwing the opening pitch as the Riverdogs face the Myrtle Beach Pelicans in the "Battle of the Beaches" exhibition game starting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Riley Park.
A portion of the night's proceeds will benefit the Children's Hospital, according to the Riverdogs' website.
This story was originally published April 3, 2018 at 1:55 PM with the headline "After 211 days in hospital, Lowcountry 3-year-old will throw 1st pitch for SC team."